Filthy Bronx lair for druggies and homeless New Yorkers gets cleaned out day after Bill de Blasio visit

A day after Mayor de Blasio visited the South Bronx drug lair, Sanitation Department workers cleaned up the place.

"The Hole" has been cleaned out — for now.

A day after Mayor de Blasio visited the South Bronx drug lair, Sanitation Department workers hauled out most of the piles of trash and the filthy furniture.

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Workers wore face masks and special gloves for the four-hour cleanup, and the city hired a private company to help remove the syringes strewn all over the Mott Haven site.

Four garbage trucks were filled with trash and debris that included suitcases, card tables and a trampoline.

As many as 20 men typically stayed at the site at St. Ann's Ave. and E. 150th St., a blight on the community for years. After de Blasio visited the encampment Wednesday, several men returned at night despite warnings from the city that they had to move on.

On Thursday, none of them were around when the cleanup began.

Some of the men work as day laborers, and may have gone to their jobs, while others hit their regular corners to beg, or headed for methadone clinics for treatment, police familiar with the population said.

The city is also making it extremely difficult for anyone to enter the site, located under abandoned railroad tracks.

They've removed the ladders and rope the men used to scurry down into the site, and sealed an open manhole that allowed them to enter from the nearby subway tunnels.

Cops will also make routine visits. On Thursday, several cruisers were monitoring the area — which is located near Intermediate School 162 and University Prep Charter School.

During his visit on Wednesday, de Blasio told the Daily News that it was "inhumane" for people to be living that way.

"I don't believe a homeless encampment is an acceptable reality in New York City in 2015," he said.

Members of the Sanitation Department clean up underneath the overpass where several homeless people sleep and get high at the corner of St. Ann's Place and 150th St. in the Bronx on Thursday. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News)

But some advocates questioned the city's approach, suggesting officials were targeting the addicts.

"We all know there is a homeless problem," said Jennifer Flynn, executive director of Vocal-NY, which advocates for drug addicts, the homeless and the very poor.

"We don't need to shine a light on individuals."

Instead, she said the city and state should find resources for drug users and push for more supportive housing, which gives people with special needs housing and access to social services.

"Unfortunately, those aren't immediate solutions," she said.

The de Blasio administration says it is committed to increasing affordable housing, but also believes that the camp was an eyesore — a glaring quality-of-life blight that couldn't be ignored.

'The Hole' is underneath an overpass in the Bronx. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News)

The police have a list of 80 spots where the homeless congregate, including 21 like the Mott Haven encampment that are so established they include furniture and makeshift housing structures. Others are called hotspots — places where the homeless and druggies congregate during the day.

Outreach workers with the Department of Homeless Services have visited many of the sites in recent weeks, informing the people who live and gather there that their camps will be dismantled and their presence no longer tolerated.

Cops from the local precincts are now bringing legal advisers and videotaping interactions to make sure everything is on the up and up, according to NYPD Chief of Patrol Carlos Gomez.

"Members of the legal bureau go to the sites to provide legal guidance and make sure we are not breaking the law to enforce it," Gomez said. "We want to make sure their constitutional rights are maintained."

There has only been one arrest at a hot spot, when a homeless man was found to be wanted on a warrant. Ten locations have recently been cleaned of rubbish and bedding.

So far, cops haven't had to be aggressive.

"They're not shooting up when we get there," Gomez said. "But if we see drugs or people doing drugs, or committing any kind of crime, we are going to take action."